Stressed out 2 year old - too much change at once - what can I do?

[Bigmerlin]

Hello

DD is 2yrs+2. Baby no.2 is due in Dec. DD is absolutely fine about this and seems quite excited. However, we are also expecting to move house before then (it has been delayed, we should have been in months ago). The news of this seems to has completely thrown her. I started to introduce the idea gently, like I did with the baby, but she got really upset. Her sleep has deteriorated to the point where she is coming into our bed most nights and even then waking us up several times a night. Last night she was crying and talking in her sleep about not wanting to live in a new house etc. She also punches me and pulls my hair when she wakes up in the middle of the night.

Any advice? I feel really guilty...and knackered...

My DD (a few months older than yours) was similar. We moved house end September & baby no.3 is also due in December. At the same time DS (4.6) started school and I started taking her to nursery. She was really unhappy and unsettled, daily tantrums, not sleeping or eating well, screaming if I spoke to anyone else etc etc. So I pulled her out of nursery (something I'm really happy about) and am spending a lot of time just chilling with her at home, going to the odd M&T group, seeing friends etc, then at lunchtime DS comes home. She has transformed! Loves her new house, sleeping 12 hours solidly at night and we only have the usual 2 year occasional meltdown to deal with now.

So maybe you just have to cut back on stuff and spend a bit more time just you and her, if that is possible of course. I know they are all different but HTH. Oh, and don't feel guilty!

Def don;t feel guilty you are giving her a baby sister/borther and a lovely new home! I think 2 year olds are just unreasonable buggers sometimes. My dd had strange unco-operative and maddening phases ( eg shouting at night/refusing a bath/etc)
keep calm, ignore the bad stuff, praise the good, it will definitely pass.
Also why not take her shopping to buy lovely new stuff for her lovely new house? Then she has something to look forward to

Brother not borther of course...

No advice but lots of sympathy as we are going through a similar phase. DS1 (2.6) is having a really hard time coping with the combination of having moved country once, shifted home twice (-from UK semi to US apartment in city to US house in suburbs), and starting playschool twice a week without me . It was actually an improvement today when he stopped crying at playschool and sat on the teacher's lap with his fingers in his mouth (-his thumb-equivalent) and his soft toy dog clutched in his other hand. He too has started throwing tantrums which he didn't used to do. I'm hoping that keeping the routine from now on and a few bribes here and there will settle him down.

Hi there

No second babies on the way our end, but ds (2 and 4 months) was pretty unsettled by us moving house back in May, so I can imagine how you're feeling.

I'd been interested in co-sleeping for a while, but pre-house move, ds slept so contentedly by himself, I didn't want to rock the boat. After the move, it was a different story, and co-sleeping with ds (which I'm still doing, and largely enjoy) has made all the difference, enabling ds to feel secure, settled and confident again. I appreciate, though, that it's not everyone's cup of tea - and less straightforward with more than one child in the picture.

Hope this helps in some way, and that it all works out well.